OK I know I have brought this up before, but the dealer installer Sirius tuner is driving me nuts. Those of you that have it know it has this block antennea that mounts in the windshield. I find that the Sirius is prone to drop outs, far more tham my TL XM ever was. I can't go a day without have numerous drop outs. My guess is it is this crappy windshield antenna. I can;t be a good location or good angle to have the antenna. I noticed that depending on the dorection I am headingt he probelms is better or worse. I can go on some interstates and never drop it going under and over pass at hwy spped, yet other interestates it drop going under any over pass. Anyone know if there is some sort of roof or trucnk mounted antenna I can get to timporve this? I love the Sirius content, but honeslty if this is as good as the signal gets I will go back to XM. I rarely dropped XM signal unless I was up in the mountains and the mountian was in the way.

Hmmm, I was wondering about the dealer-installed sirius. I just transfered my little sirius receiver from my old car, and my husband hooked up an antenna that came with it, that is attached by magnet to the roof right at the passenger door. I was thinking of going dealer-installed - but it sounds like my setup might be the best.

If I were you, I would go to one of those stereo installers like Car Toys and ask them if they have any antennas that might work better.

I am going to find the dealer tuner and see what kind of connection the antennea has, then looking into one of the aftermarket units to replace the crappy dealer antenna, who thought up this windshield mounted unit should be shot. Drops out with mild tree cover and is very sensitive to direction vehicle is travelling, seems west and south are worse than north or east.

I opted to go with an aftermarket solution based on many complaints with the Toyota Sirius Kit. I have the Soundlinq SLS from Vaistech.com and I am very pleased. This unit completely integrates with the navigation system of my TCH. I have the antenna installed on the top of the trunk lid and the reception is great. The quotes I was getting from Toyota on their Sirius kit was around $800-$900 installed. The SLS is $300, plus about $50 for a Sirius Connect receiver. You would of course have to install it yourself or pay to have someone install it. The SLS also does not have the 10 digit limitation on text that the Toyota kit has.


There is another kit that is worth noting. Go to FactoryInteractive.com where you will find kits for the Prius but they are also working on kits for the TCH. These kits come with a DVD that walks you through the installation.


Hope this helps. Let me know if anyone has any questions on Sirius or Ipod solutions for the TCH. I have done a good bit of research that I am more than willing to share.

So how hard was it to install? I am fed up with the factory Toyota kit.

The installation may be challenging for someone who isn't handy. I put the SLS unit and the SiriusConnect receiver behind the glove box of my TCH. This wasn't the ideal location but unfortunately based on how much cord length I had for reaching the head unit and the fact that the TCH doesn't have a lot extra room behind the dash. I say it isn't ideal because the great thing about the SLS is they have firmware upgrades to the unit. Ideally you want the unit in a location that you can easily gain access for updating the firmware. I will have to pull my glove compartment out for any upgrades. Hopefully this won't happen to often.

If you aren't real handy with taking apart your car, popping the plastic off of a bunch of components etc... I would recommend either paying a stereo installer to do it or better yet wait for FactoryInteractive.com to come out with their DVD on installing the SLS in the TCH. I have heard their DVDs make it very easy for anyone to install their kits. They are resellers of the Vaistech units and they sell their own. Contact Jon at FactoryInteractive.com for details.

I'm wondering if these kits work on non-NAV cars, I do nto have NAV, but hate the Toyota Sirius kit. I guess I'll e-mail them.

I do believe they support non-Nav systems. I am not as familar with that options though. The vaistech.com has a lot of information on it though. So you could start researching your options there.

Good Luck.

Thanks, I downloaded all their info and they keep referring to the NAV install, but it does look like it may work, waiting on e-mail back from them. Thanks!